


Episode 1 - The Heart of the Cards

by GamingJunior



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Canon Era, Canon Rewrite, Canon Universe, Gen, I took episode 1, LITERALLY, and I wrote it as if it were a book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21585871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GamingJunior/pseuds/GamingJunior
Summary: I've only done the first half or so of the first episode, and don't plan to do any more - I'm not really in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom anymore.Kudos and comments are always appreciated, but don't feel obligated to if you don't enjoy this fic.Oh yeah, all of the dialogue is taken from the actual episode, with a mix of the Japanese sub and the American dub.
Kudos: 1





	Episode 1 - The Heart of the Cards

**Author's Note:**

> I've only done the first half or so of the first episode, and don't plan to do any more - I'm not really in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom anymore.  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, but don't feel obligated to if you don't enjoy this fic.  
> Oh yeah, all of the dialogue is taken from the actual episode, with a mix of the Japanese sub and the American dub.

Inside a large school of Domino City, two friends sat opposite each other – one with a smile on his face, and the other with an expression if complete concentration.

“Go on – it’s your turn, Jounouchi-kun.” The smaller of the two said, encouragingly. This boy had a tri-coloured hairstyle, with blond bangs framing his face, three black spikes defying gravity and tips of amethyst that matched his eyes.

Jounouchi glanced up at his friend, Yugi Mutou, for a moment, before returning his gaze to the cards he held – hand trembling as he tried to decide which one to use. Jounouchi had bright blonde hair that stuck up at odd angles around his head, and his eyes a chocolate brown.

Just then, the tense moment disappeared, as a brunette with a large fringe styled upwards interrupted the game “What cha’ doing, Jounouchi?” He asked, ruffling Jounouchi’s hair in the way that an older brother would.

The blond didn’t seem surprised by his brunette friend’s interruption, and a confident smile reached his face as he showed the cards to the one behind him “What, don’t you know?” He started, raising his eyebrows “It’s Duel Monsters!”

The brunette, whose name was Honda Hirito, yet was often referred to as ‘Honda’, his second name, looked at Jounouchi, confusion still marring his features “What’s that?”

It was then that the blonde became impatient, saying “Shut up already, keep your mouth closed and watch!” Then returning his attention to his cards, though not before forcefully removing Honda’s hand from his shoulder.

At this point, a girl – whose name was Mazaki Anzu, and was referred to by her first name, Anzu – stepped in smoothly, addressing Honda. “It’s a fighting game where you use the monster cards and magic cards you are holding in your hand in combination.” The girl had shoulder length brown hair, and her light blue eyes shined in the light.

In the time it took for Anzu to explain this to Honda, Jounouchi had begun to cry out “Alright, I made up my mind! Battle this!”

Anzu looked at the card Jounouchi had played, and continued to address her fellow brunette “There’s two types of card positions: attack and defence. You win when you reduce your opponent’s Life Points reach zero.”

Jounouchi still had a smirk on his face as he ignored Anzu, and said “Okay, Yugi, it’s your turn.”

The shorter boy nodded in agreement “Yup, it’s my turn. I’ll attack with this.” A childish smile lit up Yugi’s face as he played a card that had a green dragon on it, and effectively wiped out his friend’s Life Points.

The blonde in front of him, while not necessarily a sore loser, threw his cards on the table in disbelief – staring at the small boy. “You whipped out such a strong card without even batting an eyelid! I lost out of nowhere!”

The two friends not playing the game made a few comments about how good Yugi’s style of play was, and so did a few of their classmates that had gathered around to watch the game. In the back of the classroom, however, was another student with well-groomed brown hair, and startling blue eyes. This student lifted his head slightly at the commotion from the other end of the classroom. This student listened into the conversation that Yugi and his friends were having. “I’m not really all that strong,” Yugi was saying “my Grandpa’s a serious gaming fanatic and owns a shop. I was able to get strong cards because of that.” The boy at the back of the classroom was now only half-listening to the gamers, as Jounouchi was saying “Alright! We’ll stop by Yugi’s house after school!” However, the boy’s interest was once again peaked at Yugi’s reply: “Yup. I’m definitely going to ask Grandpa to show you his super-rare card.” The rest of their conversation didn’t matter to the solitary student, who was now lost within his own thoughts.  _ ‘Super-rare card? I don’t think it’s possible…But could it be?’ _

=+=-=+=

That day, after school, Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu and Honda were gathered inside the Kame Game Shop that Yugi’s Grandpa owned. As the group walked in the door, the bell tinkling merrily as they did, Yugi called out “Grandpa, I’m home!”

A grey, wild-haired man sitting behind the counter smiled at Yugi, his cheeks dimpling and showing wrinkles on the man’s face. After a moment of considering his grandson, the man diverted his attention to everyone else “Ah, everyone’s here today?” He asked, even though the answer was rather obvious.

Yugi merely nodded his assent, and – with a huge grin on his lively face – addressed his Grandpa once again “Hey,” he started, hope already making its way into his eyes “can you show everyone your amazing card?” The young boy was practically bouncing up and down as he waited for his Grandfather, whose name was Sugoroku – though most called him Grandpa – to answer.

“What?” Asked the old man, slightly confused by the request “ _ That  _ card?” He rubbed his chin speculatively, eyeing all of the teenagers gathered in front of him, all of them not concealing their excitement very well.

“Please,” Yugi said, looking his Grandfather in the eye.

“Yes, please do!” Jounouchi cut in, bowing low to the elder Mutou, eyes shining with barely suppressed enthusiasm. After eyeing each of the children one more time, Sugoroku cracked a grin, his eyes gleaming with mirth. “Can’t be helped” He said, then letting his smile fade a bit as he met all of the teenagers’ eyes, and continued “This  _ is _ an exception – this is my most valuable possession, after all. Here it is” Yugi’s Grandpa pulled a card out of a heavily decorated wooden box hidden underneath the counter. “This is called the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. It’s a super-ultra-rare card.”

Jounouchi didn’t bother to cover his wonder at the card, saying “Amazing,” as soon as he saw the card, which had a silvery-white dragon on it, with piercing blue eyes; which wasn’t surprising, given its name.

Honda, however, didn’t see what was so ‘amazing’ about the card. He snatched the card out of Sugoroku’s hand, and began musing to himself “Huh? What’s so special…?”

Quickly, Grandpa reclaimed the card, clutching it close to his chest possessively “I own one out of the four copies in the  _ entire world _ . I can’t even put a price on it.”

Perhaps not noticing the tension in the air, or merely choosing to ignore it, Jounouchi smiled and said loudly, “alright, Gramps – I’m gonna buy some cards!”

Sugoroku, obviously misinterpreting Jounouchi’s statement, once again desperately clung to the card and cried out loudly “This isn’t for sale!”

A guilty expression crossed Jounouchi’s face briefly, showing his not-so-complete innocence, before a half-smile reached his face. Rubbing the back of his neck he said “Of course I won’t buy  _ that  _ one!” He said, then, aware of the disbelieving look Anzu was giving him, quickly proceeded on “I was hoping to buy some  _ other _ strong cards you have around here.”

Just as the store owner was about to respond, the bell tinkled once again, signalling the entrance of a new customer; it was the boy who had listened in on their conversation at school. Of course, none of them knew this, so Sugoroku greeted the brunette with a lively “Welcome!”

=+=-=+=

The group gathered in the shop turned their heads to see the new customer, and – one by one – they froze, unable to do anything but stare, jaws open and eyes wide. Jounouchi was the first of the stunned group to recover, and he licked his lips and managed to stutter “Y-You’re…” Before he could finish his hesitant sentence however, Yugi jumped in. “Kaiba-kun?”

Honda was the next one to be able to form words; he asked, to no one in particular, “What would the CEO of Kaiba Corporation want with us?” Kaiba Corporation, more commonly known as KaibaCorp, was an advanced gaming company that was run by 16-year-old Kaiba Seto, after he inherited it from his father. While he attended Domino High, everyone knew that he didn’t need to and all the students steered clear of him.

Just as everyone was mulling this over in their minds, Seto addressed the shocked crowd “I heard that Yugi-kun’s Grandfather was a card fanatic.” Politely, everyone nodded their heads, then – realising what the CEO had said – stared at the boy. Had they been part of an anime show, their eyes would have likely swelled to three times their size, and their mouths would be hanging open. In real life, however, the friends merely took a second to recover from the many surprises that had come from the day, and smiled once again.

Jounouchi, once again, was the first one to reply to the tall brunette “Oh, you play Duel Monsters Kaiba?” All of the gathered friends knew that if, indeed, Seto  _ did _ enjoy Duel Monsters, Jounouchi would likely invite him straight into their friendship group – sure enough, the next words out of Jounouchi’s mouth were: “that’s perfect – we got us a new friend!” This statement induced an eye-roll from Honda, but had Anzu nodding excitedly along with Jounouchi, desperately waiting for any reaction from Seto.

Seto’s reaction, when it did come, was just as smooth and calm as always – he did, however, let a small frown mar his features when he said “Woah you’d better stop that.” He looked at each of the friends in the eye, his gaze lingering on Yugi for just a moment, before continuing “You guys aren’t qualified to compete against me.”

Needless to say, all of the group were not expecting that answer – and none of them understood the last part of his statement. As ever, Jounouchi was the first one to voice what they were all thinking “What?” He practically screeched, causing Yugi to sidle away from him quietly, rubbing his ear.

Seto let his gaze rest on Jounouchi, his eyes full of derision and impatience, “You see,” he started, refusing to let any emotion show in his voice, “I am skilled enough to have won the Duel Monsters National Championship. In other words, we are at completely different levels.”

Annoyed that the brunette in front of him could, in his opinion, so rudely decline his offer of friendship  _ and _ ridiculed his gaming ability. “What did you just say?” He half snarled, half shouted “Shut your mouth and back up your words!” Jounouchi was now standing in front of the CEO, and was shaking with suppressed rage.

“Stop it, Jounouchi-kun!” Yugi cried out, stepping in front of his friend – there was no guarantee that Jounouchi would come out of a fight with Seto Kaiba unharmed.

“But he…” Jounouchi started, struggling against Yugi, yet after a moment he stopped and trailed off, seeing the sense in not annoying one of the richest and most influential people in Japan.

Seto watched the scene in front of him play out with the same cold disinterest as usual, mindlessly thinking about the ways that he could make Jounouchi pay for speaking against him – that boy was doing a good job of pissing the CEO off. “Well?” Seto asked, the mask of the unattached businessman back on his face “This shop has a large selection of cards, doesn’t it?” He easily side-stepped Yugi and his friends, walking up to the counter, where the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon was still visible in its extravagant box. “Wh-What?” He stammered, unable to process seeing the card in the Game Shop “Why is the legendary Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon in a place like this?” Internally, however, Seto was smirking – he knew that it had been a long shot to see if the card  _ had _ been here, but – as it turned out – he would not have to search any longer.

“Alrighty,” Sugoroku said tersely “we’re through. This card isn’t for sale.” Indeed, all that he had said about the card was true – and he was no more likely to sell the card to Seto than he was to Jounouchi.

Seeing the old man’s steadfast face, Seto quickly placed his silver briefcase on the counter next to the blue eyes and opened it in front of Sugoroku. It was filled with rare Duel Monsters cards that were worth a small fortune by themselves “Old man,” said the young CEO “in exchange for that  _ one _ Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon, I’ll trade you every single one of these cards!”

The group of teenagers that had originally come into the shop all stared at the cards, and chorused their amazement at them. This made it all the more surprising when Sugoroku just laughed at the businessman and shook his head “Nope.” The elder Mutou said, making sure that Seto knew he would not change his mind.

Everyone apart from Sugoroku all gasped and expressed their surprise at this statement. Seto, however, let loose a growl and clutched the edge of the counter desperately “If you won’t trade it, I’ll buy it. Name your price! I can pay anything you want me to!”

=+=-=+=

Sugoroku Mutou’s eyes now had a hard gleam in them – his voice was low and vibrated with suppressed anger as he looked the CEO in the eye and said “Kaiba-kun, wasn’t it?” There’s a reason I won’t sell this card to you.” His shoulders relaxed slightly as he continued his story “It’s not because it’s a very strong card or anything like that; it’s an important keepsake that my close friend gave to me.” The elder Mutou allowed his eyes to wander the group assembled in his shop “And I treasure this card just the same as I do that precious friend. Nothing you could pay me could possibly measure up to that.”

Yugi looked up at his grandfather, a small smile in his childish face and his eyes seemed to sparkle with hope – something that he always did whenever he heard Sugoroku talk about his cards in such a caring way. Seto, however, took the news badly – a feral sound making itself known as the CEO growled “What did you say?”

The tri-coloured teen decided that he should cut in at this point – he said, in what he hoped was a placating tone “You would feel the same, even if it was a weak card – right?”

Sugoroku looked down at his grandson with an understanding smile on his face, “That’s right – if you truly treasure a card, your very heart lies within it.”

Seto’s hands trembled with anger, and his eyes flashed a deadly warning to the owner of the shop “I’ll see myself out.” He said tightly, already halfway to the door. As the bell jingled merrily, those still in the shop looked at each other, unsure what to make of what happened.

=+=-=+=

Inside of his limousine, the CEO fumed internally, his thoughts disjointed and tainted by pure rage.  _ Heart of the cards. _ Pah – even his internal voice was mocking the  _ ridiculous _ phrase. The only thing that mattered in Duel Monsters was power –  _ cards are all about power. _ And so, one way or another, Sugoroku Mutou’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon card…  _ Will be mine. _

=+=-=+=

“Gentlemen,” Kaiba’s trademark sneer was on his face, even as he wanted nothing more than to turn right back around and take the precious card for himself “there’s something I’d like you to pick up for me at the Kame Game Shop.”

All of the men around him seemed to stand even taller than they already were, eager to do Seto’s bidding – if only to avoid the inevitable punishment were they not to. One of them stepped forward “Gladly, Master Kaiba.”

The sneer that was on Seto’s face now transformed into a dangerous smirk as he strode through the doors of KaibaCorp’s main building; this was just  _ too  _ easy.

=+=-=+=

The next morning, friendly sound of the bell sounded through the Kame Game shop once again, signalling the entrance of two burly, black-clad men into the cosy environment. Solomon Mutou welcomed them with a cheerful “Good morning,” as he turned around from restocking the shelves, “Hm?” His confusion was evident on his face as he took in the monochromatic dress and appearance of the two men.

One of the two intimidating people stepped forwards, and spoke in a commanding voice “My master, Seto Kaiba, challenges you to a duel. You may come with us now.”

While the deep voice gave no room for argument, the elderly Mutou decided to ‘explore’ his options “And if I were to decline”

A glance at the onyx-clothed man showed that he was not in the slightest entrained by Solomon’s antics. Readjusting the black glasses on his face, the man took another step forward and answered Solomon’s innocuous question “I’m afraid we must…Insist.”

Solomon didn’t seem to be in the least surprised by the implied threat, merely allowing a stony expression onto his face “Young Kaiba doesn’t understand, but I’ll teach him a lesson about the heart of the cards.”

=+=-=+=

That afternoon, Yugi and his friends were heading back to the shop, discussing the possibility of new cards that his grandfather could have in stock, when they went into the game shop, only to find it empty.

“Maybe he…Went out?” Anzu offered, rather unhelpfully – she was at a loss of what to say,

“Maybe, but why would he leave the door unlocked?” Jounouchi swiftly said, glancing at Yugi, though whether it was to see if he had any ideas about what was going on, or to see if his friend was ok, no one could tell.

In the tense silence that followed, the loud ringing of a phone cause all of the group gathered to jump and look around wildly.

It was Yugi who first located the source of the incessant noise, picking up the landline and speaking in a professional tone “Hello. Kame Game Shop.”

The others couldn’t hear what was being said on the other side of the phone, but Yugi could – a voice that seemed to ooze confidence answered with a satisfied “Ah, Yugi. Perfect.”

“Kaiba?!” Yugi exclaimed, shocking the occupants of the small shop, before shushing them when Seto started to talk again.

“Your grandfather’s here, visiting. But he’s not feeling well.” Yugi could instantly see the threat in those sentences, immediately tensing, even as Seto continued, “why don’t you come by my office and pick him up?”

As soon as Seto had finished talking, Yugi hysterically screeched into the phone “Kaiba! What have you  _ done _ , Kaiba?!”

The phone cut off as Kaiba hung up.


End file.
